How to add an AI chatbot to your website

1. Decide what you want it to do

Before you pick a tool, write down the two or three jobs the chatbot should do. For most small businesses it's some mix of these.

• Answer the questions you get every day, like prices, areas covered and opening hours.
• Turn interested visitors into leads, with their name, contact details and what they want.
• Book appointments, consultations or surveys straight from the chat.
• Hand out the right brochure, price list or datasheet.

2. Teach it your business

An AI chatbot is only as good as what it knows. Start with your website: a good tool reads every page by itself, including the PDFs in your media library. Then add the things your website doesn't say, like a price guide, an FAQ document or answers to the questions customers always ask.

Write exact answers for anything that must be said precisely, like cancellation terms or call-out charges. With HaloTasker these questions and answers are used ahead of anything else, and you can watch it read your site on a live preview of your home page.

3. Set the rules

Decide what the chatbot should do when it doesn't know an answer, and what it should never talk about.

• Tell it to only answer from what it has been taught, so it doesn't guess.
• List topics to avoid, like medical or legal advice about someone's own situation.
• Choose what happens when it can't help: offer an enquiry form, give your phone number or show a message you write.
• Set your opening hours, so it can tell visitors when the team will be back.

4. Make it look like your brand

Match the colours, font and corner rounding to your site, pick a launcher icon or upload your own picture, and choose where it sits and how big it is. Give it a name, a photo and a short greeting with two or three quick reply buttons, like 'Get a quote' or 'Areas you cover'.

Keep it polite: open the chat automatically on desktop only, after a few seconds, and don't show greeting bubbles again for a few days after someone closes them.

5. Install it

Most AI chatbots install with one line of code, the same on every website builder.

• WordPress: paste the snippet into your theme's header settings, Elementor's custom code, or a header and footer plugin.
• Wix: add it under Settings, Custom code, on all pages.
• Squarespace: add it under Settings, Advanced, Code injection, in the footer.
• Shopify: add it to your theme's theme.liquid file, before the closing body tag.
• Webflow or a custom site: paste it before the closing body tag of your pages.

6. Test it, then watch the first week

Ask it the ten questions you get most often, and a few awkward ones, before you tell anyone it's there. Then read the first week's conversations. You'll quickly see questions it couldn't answer well, and each one is a new answer to add. Check how many chats become leads and which pages start the most conversations.

Frequently asked questions